A thousand paddlers will be in town for the largest dragonboat competition to hit the country??"the Cebu Dragonboat Fiesta 2017, which is set on April 28 to 30 at the Cebu Yacht Club in Lapu-Lapu City.

One of the organizers, Nonnie Lopez, relayed to Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that there were already 38 teams on the list with a total of 1,023 paddlers. He said there are three teams from Mindanao, 20 from Visayas, 11 from Luzon and four international teams from USA, Canada, Hongkong and Africa.

"We're still waiting for the confirmation for the teams in Davao, Dipolog, one more team from Dumaguete and two more teams from Manila," he said. "For the international teams, Guam and Korea are also asking about the details regarding the accommodation."

The Cebu Dragonboat Fiesta 2017 organizers are waiting for race day before they shatter the most joined dragon boat event record in the country. The most attended dragonboat race was in Palawan last year with 33 squads.

"We're overwhelmed by the number of participants. Probably we are getting this because of the location. We are in the central area and it's easy access for the teams from Mindanao and also Luzon to come here," he said.

Lopez added that Cebu is an attraction and most of the paddlers are coming here to join the competition and also to explore the Queen City of the South and its neighboring areas like Bohol.

Lopez said they're making this event big with a total cost of P500,000 for the medal, plaques and cash prizes in all divisions.

The categories in the event are the elite, all-men's, club crew, all-women's, mixed and Under-23. A total of 13 divisions will be contested. In the elite class, the national team-laden Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy and Army are the perennial contenders for the title.